Higham Parish Council has provided a memorial plaque to Reg Weston, a former Parish Clerk.  In an unveiling ceremony at noon on Wednesday, 19th September 2007, Reg was remembered as a pivotal figure in Higham parish life.  In particular, Reg was a major force in convincing the powers-that-be to provide a local library for Higham in 1987. 

So, it was particularly special that the plaque is mounted inside the entrance hall of Higham Library, Forge Lane.  The plaque was unveiled by the Mayor of Gravesham, Cllr. Mrs Pat Oakeshott with Mr Christoph Bull, KCC District Manager of Gravesham Libraries, Mrs Linda Carnall (Higham Parish Clerk) and other parishioners. (For photographs of this ceremony, please go to the very bottom of this page.)

Reg Weston was Clerk to Higham Parish Council from 1977 to 1980. During that period, Reg’s particular contribution was to update and improve the Council’s business management and administration arrangements. Not his natural territory after a long and successful career in journalism, but a measure of Reg’s commitment during an important stage in the development of the role of the Council.

It was after his resignation from the Clerk’s office that Reg returned to his real passion as a political activist. Reg was a great believer in the central tenet of democracy - the power of people collectively to influence and change things by getting involved and organised - and he remained a dedicated Communist. That belief was Reg’s driving force for the rest of his life. It led him into campaigns and protests on issues as diverse as charges for school transport and the poll tax to involvement in the peace movement and in the miners’ strike in 1984/5, as well as activities against Fascism and racism.

So why the plaque in Higham Library to commemorate Reg’s contribution to the Higham community? Reg recognised that the ability of people to exercise their democratic rights and responsibilities depended on their being informed, equipped to articulate and express their point of view and able to engage with and influence the bodies whose executive powers impact on their lives. Reg knew that such responsible citizenship was a natural outcome of good education and life-long learning. His commitment to this principle was reflected in Reg’s enduring love of good books and literature and the written word. This was given a particular focus by his fascination with Charles Dickens’ association with Higham.

Reg understood and valued the ability of good books to impart knowledge, to sensitise people to life in all its facets, joys and challenges and to stimulate the imagination and inspire creativity and ambition. Hence the part that Reg played in the campaign to ensure that Higham had its own library where people could enjoy readily all these pleasures and benefits, even when the mood of the then Parish Council was decidedly hostile to this notion. In particular, Reg was instrumental in identifying the site of the present building just when time was running out on the prospect of County Council funding for a library in the village.

The library is deservedly a much appreciated and well-used village facility. The plaque, unveiled by the Mayor of Gravesham in the library’s entrance hall on 19 September, is a fitting tribute to what Reg believed in and stood for. It commemorates his contribution to the realisation of the library in particular.

But Reg would want the plaque to serve as a testimony to everybody whose involvement in their community through voluntary activity and service has made and continues to make a real difference for good. That is how those who knew Reg and valued his friendship would wish to remember him. Philosophers have only set about interpreting the world in various ways. Reg surely set about changing it for the better.

[David Mead, November 2007]